


The Darkness not so Dark

by Skull4601 (shiplizard)



Category: Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Excessive Exposition, Gen, Inaccessible crossovers are my jam, Technobabble, Yet Another Proof Of Concept Fic, perception filter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 03:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8473510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiplizard/pseuds/Skull4601
Summary: There is a pleasant little planet the Doctor visits sometimes-- shared peacefully by humans, animals, and a hybrid energy lifeform. The downside is the TARDIS finds it hilarious to disguise her time lord as one of the native energy creatures. On the plus side... seeing the Doctor in the shape of a little pink fluffmonster might be just what Evelyn needs after a few rough adventures.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Oh look. I got invested in the mechanics of a crossover and wrote a proof-of-concept. At least long long expository conversations are practically a tradition in Big Finish.

It was a pleasant afternoon ramble-- warm rays of early autumn sun cut through the leaves, but the dappled shade was cool and not stifling. It smelt of fall-- more than alien planets usually did. The right sort of leaves, by and large.

Of course, the Doctor couldn't have a ramble without doing some rambling himself, so what might have been a gentle silence broken only by rustling and birdsong had actually been several hours of gentle bickering and posturing and the odd bit of poetry-- and that last had led to Evelyn desperately trying to engage the Doctor in conversation that hadn't anything to do with the modernists.

"You didn't answer me before. Why, exactly, do you look like that? I'm not complaining, mind you." The Doctor currently appeared to be a mild shade of pink; not a colour Evelyn normally responded well to, but compared to that dreadful coat... oh, yes, she'd take the pink.

"I've told you about the perception filter before, I'm sure."

"Well, obviously the perception filter is at play," Evelyn said. "I had noticed as much." She shot him a disapproving look, and it was very odd to have to look down to do it instead of up. "What puzzles me is why the TARDIS has only put it on you."

"A little joke of the old girl's, I'm afraid," the Doctor sighed, his morose expression comical on the fluffy little face he currently seemed to be wearing. "On this particular planet she likes to disguise me as a native life-form. Well. More-or-less native; there have been millennia of vigorous hybridization. But the form I'm wearing is at least evolved from the first proto-life on this planet."

"So that enthusiastic young man had it wrong," Evelyn mused. "Humans are the alien colonists here."

"Quite. Though they've forgotten that entirely."

"It does look like Earth."

"Oh, yes. Advanced terraforming -- rather literally. Making it into the shape of Earth. Not terribly creative, but I suppose they found it all very .. 'retro' at the time. "

"Even the moon is more or less right. The constellations, though..." Evelyn gave her head a little shake. "It just seemed a little off-kilter. As do you, Doctor, do you have to spring about like that? It's quite distracting."

"It's how this species moves." The Doctor puffed his soft chest. The whiskery little wings on his back quivered irrascibly-- whether the overall effect was more of a kitten bristling defiantly or a petulant robin she couldn't decide.

"My usual confident gait would be quite conspicuous. I'm simply walking a little lighter on my feet--"

"Must be quite the effort--"

"And the perception filter does the rest. Really, are you implying I'm not the peak of dexterity and nimbleness?"

"Oh, never." She rolled her eyes, but she couldn't quite hide a bit of fondness. Nimble wasn't the word she'd use for the Doctor, no-- brash, more like. He never walked when he could stride; never talked when he could declaim; he was a battering-ram of a man and he would have been even if he were only eight stone and five feet tall-- but he wasn't, and consequently it was a bit alarming.

And yet, would she have him any other way?

Not really wanting to spoil the walk with a fight, she cast about for another subject.

"Some of these trees are really very odd," she muttered to herself. "Professor Hambley from the biology department would have a field day of this, I can tell you."

"Hybrids with native flora. Terribly robust and terribly primitive, when the settlers arrived-- complicated life forms simply don't survive terraforming, but your primordial extremophiles, they do tag along. I've seen terrible consequences, when a species decides to over-run another planet. There are very few planets where it goes well." The Doctor paused, looking up at the nearly-earthlike trees.

"It is very nice."

"It's not nice, Evelyn-- it's practically miraculous," he said. "A history professor is uniquely positioned to know how badly it can turn out when humanity encounters something it doesn't understand."

"Yes. Even when it's other humans," she admitted. "The colonists didn't try to do away with the native animals, not even once?"

"No. They hadn't even noticed that there was life here. The native lifeforms weren't even quite yet animals, as you know the term-- about the level of your common or garden amoeba, but comprised entirely of energy. There are a few of them left about-- especially in the deep places of the crust. Silent sounds that echo back and forth; invisible blobs of cohesive light wobbling slowly through the depths of the ocean."

The Doctor spread his stubby arms as if to embrace the landscape. "But humans brought complexity and they brought order, and their plants and animals became a catalyst for a new evolution-- a true co-evolution, the native proto-organisms slowly adopted the forms of the imported plants and animals, they attached themselves to objects and concepts and became-- something new. Half energy, half matter, and increasingly intelligent, increasingly a thing of their own. They adored humanity and humanity, in a rare show of cooperation, adored them back."

"That is miraculous," Evelyn murmured. "So that's why you come back, despite the mild indignity of being absolutely adorable."

"Hmph," the Doctor sniffed, not sounding entirely displeased. "Well. This form does have its charm. I've certainly been worse. In my previous incarnation, the TARDIS found it amusing to turn me into-- well, I'll point the species out if we see it. One does appreciate not having to carry a leek everywhere one goes."

"A leek, Doctor."

"Quite," he said, as if that explained it all. She decided not to pursue the question.

"Can we stop for a bit, Doctor? This is all very lovely, but my knees don't have the same spring in them that yours seem to do."

"Courage to the sticking place, Evelyn. It's only over the crest of that hill. We'll be there before the hour's out."

"You could have landed us a bit closer, surely."

"Nonsense! A walk is just the thing to build up an appetite."

"Something you've never needed help with."

"Madame," the Doctor bristled. Yes. Quite like very large kitten.

She couldn't help the chuckle that escaped. The Doctor huffed at her, and then bounded away up the path, springing up the shallow rise and surveying the view from the top.

"There," he declared. "Not twenty minutes away; you'll be able to rest those aching knees of yours."

"Not a moment too soon." Just thinking about the ache in her legs was making it worse, and the mild slope was a bit more tiring than it had any right to be. Her ankle gave a dangerous wobble; the Doctor sprang to her side. 

"There, lean on me a bit."

"That's hardly necessary. I'm not old, you know."

"Of course not," the Doctor soothed. "But just give me your hand."

"How-?"

She held a hand out just where the Doctor's shoulders-- if they could be called that-- seemed to be. The Doctor seemed to push his back under her hand, and she felt the odd double-sensation of leaning on the crook of the Doctor's arm and leaning on a surprisingly sturdy, soft-furred side.

"There you are," the Doctor said gently. She saw a thick pink arm come up, and felt simultaneously the Doctor's large, cool hand, engulf hers and a warm, small clawed one wrap around her finger. It was rather pleasant when one got used to it, and she had to admit-- privately-- that the support was quite welcome.

Together they crested the hill, and she could just glimpse the pretty little town nestled amidst yet more absurdly scenic hills and orchards.

"The place is just showing off now," she said. "Are there places on this planet that aren't lovely?"

"Oh there are, trust me. But fewer than there might be."

"Well, thank you for taking me to the nice ones. It's a pleasant change, I must say."

Another harumph, but no new argument. That was rather suspicious, actually.

"Doctor."

"Mm?"

"I am all right, you know."

"Of course you are. I'm sure I never implied otherwise."

"It's just that you've taken me somewhere pleasant and nothing dreadful has happened, and I do wonder if you're... well... putting on the kid gloves."

The Doctor was silent, and that in itself was as good as a confession. She stopped and tugged her hand free; another hundred meters and they'd be among the first buildings of the town. She didn't want to have this out in public.

"You are, Doctor! I'm not made of glass. I don't need to be coddled."

"You might consider it an apology," he said quietly, not meeting her eyes.

"You have apologized."

"Words," the Doctor said. "Not nearly enough to make up for what you've lost, and what you might have lost. You've gone through so much travelling with me, and what have you got out of it? Certainly not quite the historical perspective you were hoping."

"Perhaps not, but you never promised me that," she reminded him. "I chose to come along."

"You couldn't have known what was at stake. Nobody ever does. Poor Sally--"

"Sally is all right, Doctor. She will be all right."

"Cassie isn't." He let out a breath so heavy that its loss seemed to shrink him. "I never should have left her. You were right."

"You do know that I've forgiven you, don't you?"

"Have you?" it was terribly wistful. "I haven't."

"Oh, Doctor--"

"I wanted to take you to one safe place. One where the darkness isn't so dark and the wrongs don't need us to right them and disasters are scarce on the ground. It's a simple place-- so pleasant that it nearly wears on you. But for just a while I thought you deserved lovely food and lovely scenery and no surprises. No Silurians; no Forge; no pirates, no ...horror."

"Thank you," she said quietly. "You needn't have. But thank you."

"You're very welcome. And I am sorry." He reached out for her hand and she took it somberly, cool and warm, small and massive. "I'm very fond of your company, you know."

"You don't need to go around masquerading as a furry little whatsit to keep it, you know."

That seemed to be enough maudlin sentiment for them both; the Doctor released her hand and smoothed down his chest-- or, likely his vest, behind the perception filter.

"I'm not a whatsit," he said, enunciating his disdain. "The name of the species is--"

"I know what the name of the species is. If I don't concentrate on blocking out the perception filter it's nearly all I can hear."

"Oh." An adorable little frown. "I had thought I'd fixed that echo effect. I have to sound the part to everyone else, but the TARDIs should shield my companions from the effect. ...a tricky interaction with the translation circuits, I fear. That's the problem with trying to project into another language and translate back out of it all at once."

"I see." She didn't, quite. "It's all right. I can still understand you. I don't really mind, you know. It's quite sweet."

"Sweet!" he scoffed. Or, as the perception filter rendered it, an indignant 'Fable!'. She thought that even if she couldn't hear his voice under the illusion she'd still recognize him.

"You could even call it precious," she teased, and he made a show of great indignance-- complete with bristling wings and stubby little legs set in a defiant stance. She couldn't help it-- she chortled, turning it into a cough after a moment.

"I shall ignore that," the Doctor said, but with only mock severity.

The dreadful sadness had released its grip on her again-- not gone, perhaps never gone, but held at bay again behind their usual fond bickering.

"Instead, I shall take you to a town that makes the best crepes outside of twenty-first century Nice. Behold." He waved a little pink arm.

"I do hope it was worth the walk."

"One bite and you'll forget you ever said something so absurd," he predicted. 'Fable FABLE, cleFABLE,' the illusion declaimed along with him.

She was smiling again; she couldn't remember the last time she had smiled so much. Perhaps the Doctor had been right; perhaps she had needed this.

 

“Now-- I do hope you’ve remembered the local currency?” 

 

“Of course I have. I have it in my pockets.” 

 

“And how are you going to discreetly produce money from pockets that nobody can see?” 

 

“Oh, people won’t find that alarming at all. They’ll all have seen much stranger.” 

 

“Hmmm.” 

 

“You doubt me, Professor Smythe?” he asked loftily, puffing his chest so much that he looked like a little pink barrel with large ears and a curl on top. 

 

“Oh, never.” 

 

Yes. Perhaps this was precisely what they’d both needed.

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline-wise, Sixy and Evelyn are from a bit after Project Lazarus, and a bit before Arrangements for War. They're visiting Kalos (after a spin by Mount Moon) arouuund episode 26 of Pokemon XY ('A battle by any other name'. BAKING!) 
> 
> Because hey, we like tonal whiplash around here. 
> 
> Of course Five was constantly a Farfetch'd. He did not think this was funny. The TARDIS thought it was _hilarious_


End file.
